. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Sep 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Occup Rehabil. 2015 Sep;25(3):638–647. doi: 10.1007/s10926-015-9571-8

Table 4.

Responsiveness indices for the 1-year recall modified DASH-W against change in self-reported work ability, work productivity, and symptom severity (n=551)

Change	n	Baseline mean of 1-year recall modified DASH-W ^a scores	Mean change of 1-year recall modified DASH-W ^a scores	SD of change of 1-year recall modified DASH-W scores	Effect Size ^b	SRM ^c	AUC ^d
Improved ^e, ^f
Work ability	72	27.3	−14.3	27.7	−0.58	−0.52	0.73
Work productivity	72	27.5	−14.4	25.8	−0.59	−0.56	0.73
Symptom severity	149	16.0	−6.5	22.3	−0.32	−0.29	0.65
No change ^e, ^f
Work ability	388	3.3	0.0	9.9	−0.01	−0.01	n/a
Work productivity	402	3.2	0.7	11.2	0.08	0.06	n/a
Symptom severity	274	2.5	0.0	9.2	0.00	0.00	n/a
Worsened ^e, ^f
Work ability	91	11.5	19.2	28.3	1.24	0.68	0.75
Work productivity	77	13.6	18.8	31.0	1.02	0.61	0.74
Symptom severity	128	9.6	13.0	26.3	0.77	0.50	0.69

Abbreviations: DASH-W, Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand, Work module; SD- standard deviation; SRM- standardized response mean; AUC- area under the receiver operating characteristic curve.

Higher scores on the 1-year recall modified DASH-W indicate greater disability. Possible range of scores (0–100).

Mean change divided by the SD of the baseline score. Effect size of 0.20–0.50 was considered a small effect, 0.50–0.80 a moderate effect, and > 0.80 a large effect [32].

Mean change divided by the SD of change. SRM of 0.20–0.50 was considered a small effect, 0.50–0.80 a moderate effect, and > 0.80 a large effect[32].

An AUC of at least 0.70 demonstrates responsiveness to change [33].

Higher scores on each measure indicated worse performance; therefore, “improved” was a negative change and “worsened” was a positive change. We used a change score for each item of 2 or more points in either direction to indicate a meaningful change; a change of less than or equal to 1 in either direction was considered no change.

If subjects reported symptoms in more than one region of the upper extremity, the maximum change on each measure (work ability, work productivity, symptom severity) was used for comparison to change in 1-year recall modified DASH-W score.